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Social, economic, and political context of parenting
  1. Julie Taylora,
  2. Nick Spencerc,
  3. Norma Baldwinb
  1. aSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HH, UK, bDepartment of Social Work, University of Dundee, cSchool of Postgraduate Medical Education and Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
  1. Professor Spencer email: n.j.spencer{at}warwick.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.82.2.113

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    This article is written as a contribution to the parenting debate and as a response to Hoghughi and Speight.1 Our starting point is simple; parenting cannot be understood, and neither can interventions to support effective parenting and successful childrearing be planned, unless it is placed within its economic, social, historical, and political context. Our paper is based around three interconnected themes, which arise from an extensive review of the parenting literature that one of the authors (JT) is undertaking. These are:

    • the problems of defining “good enough” parenting

    • the inadequacy of accounting for socioeconomic status in many parenting papers

    • the direct effects of economic hardship and poverty on parenting.

    Before considering each of these themes, we briefly reflect on some historical aspects of the debate around parenting. The brief review is intended to highlight some continuities and discontinuities over time in the parenting debate.

    Some historical reflections on the parenting debate

    Parenting has been the subject of a long standing debate. In the last century, despite a focus on children of the “undeserving” poor (those viewed as “feckless” or “unsuitable”) in the UK2 and the USA,3 the dominant approach to health was based on the provision of adequate sanitation and public health measures. Around the turn of the century, a shift took place towards personal responsibility for health.4 Emphasis was laid on the role of the parents, particularly the mother. In response to the poor physical state of recruits to the British Army in the Boer War and the perceived “degeneration of the race”, the 1904 “interdepartmental committee on physical deterioration” was established, taking evidence from various sources. A voluntary health visitor working with poor women is quoted in the committee's proceedings as follows: “The girls . . . have no sort of sense of duty; not the slightest. It is only amusement …

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